Prices plummet in ISO-NE capacity auction-Its Only Just Started?

Where is the big break for the consumers and businesses electricity?

Entergy went into a buying spree gaining power plants throughout country outside their home territory of Louisiana. The speculation game. Most of the other big dog utilities have done the same businesses plan. It made sense in the high priced electricity era and rising electric prices for as far as your eyes can see. This is much bigger than just the nukes. I believe all electric utilities resources outside their home territories has turned effectively into "stranded assets" in this low electricity price environment.

Prices plummet in ISO-NE capacity auction, raising questions about new generation plans  

                                   

By

Robert Walton @TeamWetDog

•

Published

Feb. 14, 2017

Dive Brief:

• ISO-New England completed its annual capacity auction last week, easily procuring needed resources at low prices for delivery in 2020 and 2021.
• The 11th annual auction closed with a system-wide clearing price of $5.30/kW-month, compared to $7.03/kW-month in the previous auction. The prices were the lowest seen in the auction since 2013, according to the ISO.
• The lower prices and ample reserves have allowed some to question if the region needs new generation. The Conservation Law Foundation argued the region's ample capacity proves Invenergy's planned 900 MW Clear River Energy Center in Rhode Island is unnecessary.

Dive Insight:

New England's grid operator easily procured the resources needed to ensure sufficient capacity from June 2020 through May 2021, a welcome change from just three years ago when the region came up short. But the auction results have some questioning if the grid now has all the power plants it needs.
No new large resources cleared the auction, but 640 MW of new energy-efficiency and demand response did. The grid operator needed to procure about 34,000 MW and wound up with more than 35,800 MW.
The New Brunswick interface closed in the sixth auction round, as opposed to the rest of the auction which closed in the fifth. The New Brunswick zone, which has excess capacity saw payments finalize at $3.381/kW-month.
The ISO said forecasted demand reductions from its forecast of behind-the-meter solar PV growth reduced the capacity target by 720 MW.
"The lower clearing price and surplus capacity are indicative of a market that works," ISO Vice President Robert Ethier said in a statement.
Ethier said supply shortfalls pushed up prices in previous auctions, after more than 3,000 MW of resources announced their retirements in 2013. "The higher prices have attracted new competition, which has helped lower prices while keeping the lights on in New England," he said.
In a post on the Conservation Law Foundation's blog, the organization's senior attorney said the auction results the Clear River gas plant is unnecessary.
"The ISO’s figures do not lie; they tell a very simple story," wrote Jerry Elmer. "Invenergy’s fracked gas and diesel oil power plant is just not needed, which is why the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board should simply reject its application now and be done with the project for good."
The foundation and the town of Burrillville have filed with the siting board for rejection of the new power plant. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16, according to ecoRI News.

The Implosion At Toshiba Just Got Much More Worst

Lets see, the three plant meltdown in Japan, Mitsubishi's botched steam generator job killing two plants at San Onophe and now the collapse of Toshiba based on US new Nuclear plants.

I see the Southern Company is bragging about the strict contracts protecting the rate payers of George. I'll bet talking about bankruptcy means they will disconnect them from the new nukes.

How can you now ever trust the Japanize with anything nuclear?

And the fish rots from head down...    

Chaos at Toshiba: $6.3 billion write-down, chairman resigns, bankruptcy looms

The inside track on Washington politics.

By Anna Fifield By Anna Fifield

World

February 14 at 4:36 AM

TOKYO — The chaos at Toshiba, the Japanese corporate giant, deepened Tuesday, with its chairman resigning and the company saying it would book a $6.3 billion loss related to its U.S. nuclear business.

Analysts are now speculating about the possibility that Toshiba, which employs almost 200,000 people in Japan and has significant investments in the United States, will have to file for bankruptcy.

“This is one of Japan’s historic corporations and it’s very important to the Japanese economy, so this could be very significant for Japan,” said Tom O’Sullivan, a Tokyo-based energy analyst. “It would even impact Japan’s sovereign credit rating if there’s a knock-on effect.”

The news came a day after government statistics showed that the Japanese economy grew by an anemic 0.2 percent in the three months to December, the third consecutive quarter that growth in the world's third largest economy had slowed.

Toshiba executives were due to deliver the company’s quarterly earnings announcement Tuesday — the deadline for the Tokyo Stock Exchange rule to report earnings within 45 days — but they failed to show up. Instead, the company said that it was “not ready” to make the announcement and asked for another month to file.

The company’s shares fell 8 percent in local trading Tuesday.

Then, after the stock market had closed, Toshiba said that it would take a $6.3 billion hit related to Westinghouse’s acquisition in December of Stone & Webster, a nuclear construction business, from Chicago Bridge & Iron in December.

Shigenori Shiga, its chairman, would step down Wednesday to take responsibility for the losses, the company said.

Toshiba, which bought a majority stake in Pennsylvania-based nuclear power company Westinghouse in 2006, earlier said that it had received internal information late last month about irregularities during the acquisition. It had learned that controls at Westinghouse had been “insufficient” and that the company had used “inappropriate pressure” to make the acquisition.

CONTENT FROM GOLDMAN SACHS

 “We concluded on Monday afternoon that we need further research on the internal reporting … and its impact on financial results,” the company said in a statement, adding that its lawyers and an independent auditing firm were still poring over the details.

Japanese media reported that the delay was due to a disagreement between Toshiba's management and its auditors. O’Sullivan, the analyst, said he thought there had probably been a dispute about whether to issue “going concern” notice, often a precursor to liquidation or bankruptcy.

“My guess is that the auditors wouldn’t sign off on the accounts with a going concern order,” he said.

The Nikkei business newspaper, which has a record of eerily precise leaks from Japanese companies, had earlier reported that Toshiba would say it faced “material uncertainty” about its prospects for remaining in business.

Toshiba, which makes everything from televisions to nuclear reactors, has had a rocky few years. In 2015, it was discovered to have exaggerated its profits, leading to wide-ranging restructuring and asset sales.

This has compounded huge problems with its international business. The company has been trying to deal with huge cost overruns at its at nuclear plants in Georgia and South Carolina. Although it says it will finish building those reactors, its has curtailed expansion plans in the U.K. and elsewhere.

The company’s market capitalization has already plummeted by $7 billion to sit at the end of Tuesday at about $8 billion, and it is reportedly considering selling some of its profitable businesses, including its memory chip arm, to help stem the losses.

Junk Plant Pilgrim Shuts Down Before Snow Storm

Katie Lannan State House News Service

After operating at reduced power this week, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station shut down Thursday morning, Feb. 9, ahead of a winter storm forecast to bring over a foot of snow to Massachusetts, the plant's operator announced.

The plant has been operating at a reduced power level of 30 percent since Monday, when a seawater leak was found in a condenser tube, and work to prevent future leaks will continue while the plant is down, Entergy Pilgrim Station spokesman Patrick O'Brien said in a statement.

The tube where the leak was identified has been repaired, and Pilgrim is now working to plug additional tubes to prevent similar issues, said O'Brien who called the decision to shut down the plant a preemptive measure.

Pilgrim officials decided at 8 a.m. to shut down the reactor, based on National Weather Service forecasts and station operating procedure.

In addition to the snowfall, the NWS advises of potential wind gusts of up to 55 to 65 miles per hour across Plymouth County, Cape Cod and the Islands and a higher risk of power outages in southeastern Massachusetts due to the high winds and wetness of snow.

Coastal flooding and beach erosion is also possible.

"A date and time of when Pilgrim will return to 100% power is considered business sensitive and we do not disclose that information," O'Brien said.

Seismic Gap Issues On Junk Plant Pilgrim From NRC: Everything is OK

I don't trust the NRC's definition of safety and significance. Mr. Cline is a good guy. I am just worried about ground water leakage into Pilgrim's turbine building or reactor building to the tune of 1000 gals per day which the NRC found acceptable.

Mike,

I am writing to you in response to a conversation that you and I had back at the end of November 2016 regarding seismic gap leakage issues at the Vermont Yankee plant and whether it was possible that these same issues could be occurring at Pilgrim.  I think that you were already informed that the NRC was not aware of any significant groundwater leakage in the Pilgrim turbine or reactor buildings.  I also wanted to let you know that we completed our review related to the concern you raised.  We reviewed the design of the Pilgrim turbine building and reactor building subsurface structures and did not identify a seismic gap configuration at Pilgrim that was similar to Vermont Yankee.  Most significantly there is not a metal barrier at Pilgrim.  We also reviewed the design of the Pilgrim configuration, including the features used to limit water intrusion into these structures, to confirm their purpose and function, and have concluded that the water intrusion features have no safety function at Pilgrim.  Based on this information we plan no additional follow-up related to this concern.  We hope that we have addressed your concern and thank you for bringing the issue to our attention.

Leonard Cline

Sr. Project Engineer

Pilgrim & James A. FitzPatrick

USNRC, RI

610-337-5373

 

Astronomical Radiation Level In Fukushima: Media Just Parrots Any Old Crap That Is Sensational

update Feb 9

I was the first one to realize this story was bogus in the world :)

I think the japs were pulling a Trump. A information disruption game.

Bloomberg

Tepco Struggles to Communicate Radiation Spike That Wasn’t

by

Stephen Stapczynski

@SStapczynskiMore stories by Stephen Stapczynski

‎February‎ ‎9‎, ‎2017‎ ‎12‎:‎27‎ ‎AM‎ ‎EST ‎February‎ ‎9‎, ‎2017‎ ‎7‎:‎03‎ ‎AM‎ ‎EST

There was just one problem -- there was no rise in the radiation readings at all.
By putting a camera inside of the primary containment vessel of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 2 reactor, which experienced a meltdown in the 2011 disaster, Tepco collected data closer than ever before to what could be the source of radiation.

While these figures are much higher than the previously recorded peaks -- 73 sieverts an hour, taken in 2012 -- and many times greater than the lethal dose, the readings were taken closer to the source of the radiation.

“Very high radiation readings near any of the used fuel would be expected,” Peter Lyons, a former commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said by e-mail. 

Continuing Fear

By comparison, a nuclear fuel rod a day after a reactor is halted has a surface radiation of several tens of thousands of sieverts an hour, Yukako Handa, a Tepco spokeswoman, said by phone. Tepco also notes that the 530 sieverts figure has a margin of error of 30 percent.

The alarm shows the struggles Tepco still faces communicating with a population afraid of the consequences of nuclear power, and suspicious of the utility after its obfuscation while the accident was unfolding. Last year Tepco was forced to apologize when reports emerged that management at the time of the disaster ordered staff not to use the word “meltdown.”

Bottom of Form

“There is a continuing fear regarding the effects of the accident, which was reinforced by poor information from Tepco and the Japanese government in the early days,” Azby Brown, lead researcher for Safecast, an independent organization that compiles radiation data, said by e-mail. “While it was clear to people who have been following the technical issues that they did not intend to suggest there had been a rise in radiation levels, we can see why some people misunderstood.”

I would say these readings would be normal for a core meltdown within the vessel. Somewhat mild for the condition. Exposed fuel to the atmosphere would get you to millions of Sieverts per hour or incapable of being measured. If there was a huge clump of core ruble  on cement floor in that compartment we'd be talking millions of rems. It just doesn't make sense?

The nuclear plant's Rainforest.

I was in a similar area many times. It is the bottom hemisphere of the vessel. So you are in center of the room looking up, its looked like seeing a huge basketball above your head. Except a lot of long sticks (CDRMS) protruding out of the basketball. Cables would be coming out of the sticks looking like vines in a forest. It was damp in there and had water leaks dripping on the floor. If you had a big imagination it looks like a upside down rainforest. If you were called to go down there to work, you knew you pissed off somebody big time. 

Believe me, we all had a great since of humor .   

Japanese nuclear plant just recorded an astronomical radiation level. Should we be worried?

Washington Post TOKYO — The utility company that operated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan — the one that went into triple meltdown after the enormous 2011 earthquake and tsunami — has released some jaw-dropping figures.

The radiation level in the containment vessel of reactor two has reached as high as 530 sieverts per hour, Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco as it’s known, said last week. This far exceeds the previous high of 73 sieverts per hour recorded at the reactor following the March 2011 disaster.

Browns Ferry 2 Stuck At 80% Power for Two Weeks

Arkansas 2 Stuck At 80% Power for Two weeks.

This guys are the worst Plant is the USA. Why are they stuck at cat. 4 for for so long?

Junk Plant Pilgrim Down to 28% Power Today

The Toshiba Meldown: Grand Flaw was the Southern US Conservative Political Ideology

I think the fallout of this is will be to reset the politics of Georgia. Do you close down construction now and take a big quick hit? Or drag it out till the plant are connected to the grid and the public sees and feels the cost of high electricity and poor plant reliability.

We are all getting ready to see the rats jumping ship.

Costly Delays Upset Reactor Renaissance, Keep Nuclear at Bay

Stephen Stapczynski 

February 3, 2017, 10:13 amFebruary 2, 2017, 4:00 pm

Bloomberg) -- Costly delays, growing complexity and new safety requirements in the wake of the triple meltdown at Fukushima are conspiring to thwart a new age of nuclear reactor construction. 

So-called generation III+ reactors were supposed to have simpler designs and safety features to avoid the kind of disaster seen in Japan almost six years ago. With their development, the industry heralded the dawn of a new era of cheaper, easier-to-build atomic plants. 

Instead, the new reactors are running afoul of tighter regulations and unfamiliar designs, delaying completions and raising questions on whether the breakthroughs are too complex and expensive to be realized without state aid. The developments have left the industry’s pioneers, including Areva SA and Westinghouse Electric Co., struggling to complete long-delayed projects while construction elsewhere gains pace. 

“The cost overrun situation is driven by a near-perfect storm of societal risk aversion to nuclear causing ultra-restrictive regulatory requirements, construction complexity, and lack of nuclear construction experience by the industry,” said Lake Barrett, a former official at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Toshiba Corp., Japan’s biggest maker of nuclear power plants, is the latest to join a list of companies facing impairments in the pursuit of cutting-edge reactors.

Tokyo-based Toshiba said in December it may have to write down billions on an acquisition by its Westinghouse unit due in part to cost overruns at two nuclear plants it’s building in the U.S. The company aims to announce the details of the impairments on Feb. 14, which Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects to be 551 billion yen ($4.9 billion), while SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. forecasts 500 billion yen. 

“We are reviewing the future of our nuclear power business outside Japan, but nothing has been decided at this time, including future development,” spokeswoman Yuu Takase said by e-mail in response to questions about the size of the writedown. 

The March 2011 Fukushima meltdown that shuttered Japan’s industry sent ripples around the world, forcing companies and regulators to seek safer designs. The U.S. shale boom, meanwhile, slashed prices for gas, coal and oil and undercut rising costs to develop nuclear energy. 

Ballooning Costs 

In 2015, the investment cost to develop a new nuclear plant was $5,828 per kilowatt, up from $2,065 in 1998, according to a World Nuclear Association report. In Europe, construction of a new nuclear facility in France seen costing $7,202 per kilowatt, compared with $2,280.

Toshiba isn’t alone. France’s Areva SA is seeking a 4.5 billion-euro bailout from the French government after running into delays and escalating costs at its next-generation EPR reactor at Olkiluoto in Finland, which is almost a decade late. It’s also selling its nuclear reactor construction business to Electricite de France. An Areva spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday. 

Two EPRs at Hinkley Point in southwest England to be built by EDF are expected to run 18 billion pounds ($22.5 billion). The cost of an EPR being built by the company at Flamanville in France has tripled since construction started in 2007. The project is six years behind schedule. A spokesman Wednesday said the issues can be attributed to an industry, which has lost skills due to a building lull, struggling with a cutting-edge design.

Toshiba, one of Japan’s three biggest reactor suppliers, first made a bet on the future of atomic power in 2006, when it purchased a controlling stake in Westinghouse for $5.4 billion. 

As recently as March, nuclear power business was seen as a growth driver, accounting for almost a fifth of net sales by fiscal year 2018, according to a company presentation at the time. The business comprised 13 percent of net sales in the latest fiscal year. 

Westinghouse boasted that its generation III+ AP1000 reactor was the safest on the market, employing a simpler, modular design that could be rolled out in record time. In 2015, Westinghouse took over construction of two nuclear projects in Georgia and South Carolina when it bought contractor CB&I Inc.’s nuclear business for $229 million. The purchase also resulted in a settlement between Westinghouse, CB&I and the utilities that owned the plants over delays and cost overruns. 

U.S. Overruns 

Following the purchase, Westinghouse was sued by CB&I over a $2 billion accounting dispute related to cost overruns at four reactors in the U.S. While the case was dismissed, CB&I is appealing the decision and moved forward on a process with an independent auditor to decide who bears the charge. 

The projects, split over two sites and overseen by utilities Southern Co. and Scana Corp., incorporate the AP1000. Cost overruns have ballooned, with Southern’s share at about $1.3 billion and Scana’s at least $831 million.

“I don’t know of any recent examples of new, large, complex technological construction projects that have come in on time and on budget,” Allison Macfarlane, a former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said by e-mail.

The industry has no agreed-upon definition for generation III+. Broadly, the reactors are expected to withstand an airplane strike and the cooling systems should operate for at least three days without electricity. 

‘Get Up To Speed’ 

While the industry works through the challenges of the technology in Europe and the U.S., competitors in Asia are moving forward. South Korea started its first APR-1400 last year, and the U.A.E. picked the design for its first batch of reactors. China says its homegrown Hualong One, which it’s building at home and aims to sell overseas, uses third-generation nuclear technology. 

Hualong One is part of China’s state-backed nuclear program that plans to boost capacity more than 70 percent by 2020. The world’s second-biggest economy will almost triple capacity to nearly 100 gigawatts by 2026, making it the biggest market globally, according to BMI Research. 

And in Hungary, Russia has agreed to finance 80 percent of an estimated $12 billion to build two Rosatom VVER-1200 reactors. Russia is ready to raise that to 100 percent by “tweaking” the deal, President Vladimir Putin said at a joint briefing with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday. 

One fundamental problem facing developers is the slowed pace of construction since a nuclear building boom in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Mark Hibbs, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Nuclear Policy Program. 

“You get better at building reactors when you can keep at it,” Hibbs said by e-mail. “At some point Areva and Westinghouse may get to the point of doing that with generation three, but they would have to get up to speed first.”

Junk Quad Cities ERV/ADS valves

So Illinois just heavily subsidized this plant. Unit 2 is at 88% power power. The valves behind the indicator light is in worst shape than the burnt out light bulb holder.

Upon on the event they declared they are still at 100% power. Now they are at 88% power. I don't get it, they are changing out the light bulb and the switch catches fire. 

They need to completely gut out the ERV/ADS system and replace it with new technology. 
  
The Safety Relief Valves and the Electromatic Relief Valves are very similar. What decade have you last heard the world electromatic? Both these component styles are riddle with maintenance and internals repair parts poor quality. They have to get into a time machine in order to get new parts.

Oyster Creek plant with EVRS is coming up to two white finding on maintenance issues. The first white finding was "on the house" with the NRC and not included into the ROP based on a old design issue.  

Power Reactor	Event Number: 52527
Facility: QUAD CITIES Region: 3 State: IL Unit: [ ] [2] [ ] RX Type: [1] GE-3,[2] GE-3 NRC Notified By: JEFFREY KOSCIK HQ OPS Officer: MARK ABRAMOVITZ	Notification Date: 02/01/2017 Notification Time: 21:22 [ET] Event Date: 02/01/2017 Event Time: 19:38 [CST] Last Update Date: 02/02/2017
Emergency Class: ALERT 10 CFR Section: 50.72(a) (1) (i) - EMERGENCY DECLARED	Person (Organization): ERIC DUNCAN (R3DO) CINDY PEDERSON (R3 R) BRIAN McDERMOTT (ET N) WILLIAM GOTT (IRD) CHRIS MILLER (NRR)

Unit	SCRAM Code	RX CRIT	Initial PWR	Initial RX Mode	Current PWR	Current RX Mode
2	N	Y	100	Power Operation	100	Power Operation

Event Text

ALERT - FIRE IN SAFETY RELATED SYSTEM "On February 1, 2017, at 1929 hours [CST], a fire was discovered on the Unit 2 Main Control Room panel 902-3 in the 3E ERV/ADS valve switch. A reactor SCRAM was not required. No automatic isolations/actuations occurred. The fire was extinguished at 1932 and the reactor remained at 100% power. "An Alert was declared at 1938 [CST]. "The initiation of the event was attempting to change a light bulb. The cause of the event is under investigation. "The Senior Resident Inspector has been notified of the event." The licensee entered a 14 day Technical Specification Action statement as a result of the damage to the switch. Notified DHS SWO, DOE, FEMA, HHS, NICC, USDA, EPA, FDA, NNSA (e-mail), and NRCC SASC (e-mail). * * * UPDATE AT 0040 EST ON 2/2/17 FROM DAVID KNEPPER TO JEFF HERRERA * * * Notified that the Alert was terminated at 2336 CST on 2/1/17. The licensee stated that the fire was extinguished and an extent of condition walkdown did not identify any additional equipment damage as a result of the fire. The licensee will be issuing a press release. The licensee will be notifying the NRC Resident Inspector. Notified the R3DO (Duncan), IRD MOC (Gott), NRR EO (Miller), DHS SWO, DOE, FEMA, HHS, NICC, USDA, EPA, FDA, NNSA (e-mail), and NRCC SASC (e-mail).

Holt Child Adoption Service Warns Parents Feds Coming To Get Your Children

Holt Child Adoption Service Warns Parents Feds Coming To Get Your Children

We got both our Korean children from the Holt Adoption agency. This agency emerged out of the Korean war with war related parentless children and unintended pregnancies with US service men. Our first child got to our house in about 1989 and my son came 7 years later. One arrived at our house at 3 months old and the other at six months old.   My daughter has somewhat minor adoption issues. It is perfectly normal. She called Holt to get her birth mother address. She got the contact information. She never went any further yet.  So this got her on the Holt e-mail service list.

The most recent monthly Holt e-mail warned all adopted parents to make sure you got the birth certificate and citizenship paper in case the feds come to get your children. You need to gather all your paperwork together just in case.

We are outrage with her getting this official message from the agency. It greatly upset my daughter. I laughed when my told me this. I said you dummy, you are American and South Korean, you never came from Syria.  

I wonder if one of her jealous friends sent her this email to just be mean?

Junk Plant Millstone As A Indicator Of Problems with SRVs and PORVs Valves Nationwide

New inspection report 2016004

This is a representative report indicating problems throughout the Industry with safety relief valves and PORV valves. Poor maintenance on the PORV valve gave us TMI. These problems go across the plant employees, manufacturers and vendors since 2006. The new valves were way less reliable than the old ones.

How we get to Pilgrim today is through the replacement of their two stage safety relieve valves. The reliability of the old valves were horrible. They put in refurbished three stage SRVs through the nuclear junks yards in 2011. The new SRVs began leaking emediately upon startup. They had horrendous leaking problems with the new valves effecting capacity factor. In 2013, I made a complaint to the NRC saying the valves have a common mode issues and they are extremely unreliable. The NRC blew me off. In the 2015 Blizzard hard plant trip and LOOP, two valves failed to operate when needed. We got here because I professionally so embarrassed the NRC.

1) The commonality between Millstone(PWR)and(Pilgrim) is upon startup with new valves, they emediately began leaking. It takes them many failures and many years to confront the defective new valves.  

2) Generally the SRVs and PORVs are indicator components. It indicates the bureaucracies are dysfunctional.  

3) With new valves and leaking, the NRC should have emediately ordered the plant to shutdown and fix them. On the second leak, we will shut you down for a year. That's being tough!!!       
That is how you make everyone else behave in the industry.

·        Annual Sample:  Unit 2 ‘B’ Power Operated Relief Valve (PORV) Leakage

a. Inspection Scope

The inspectors performed an in-depth review of Dominion’s identification and correction

of conditions adverse to quality associated with repetitive leakage of Unit 2 PORVs since

modification and installation in 2006 during 2R17. 

The inspectors assessed Dominion’s problem identification threshold, causal analyses,

extent of condition reviews, compensatory actions, and the prioritization and timeliness

of Dominion’s corrective actions to determine whether Dominion was appropriately

identifying, characterizing, and correcting problems associated with this issue and

whether the planned or completed corrective actions were appropriate.  The inspectors

compared the actions taken to the requirements of Dominion’s CAP and 10 CFR 50,

Appendix B and assessed the effectiveness of the implemented corrective actions.  

b.  Findings and Observations

No findings were identified.  

In 2006, Dominion chose to upgrade the Unit 2 Pressurizer PORV and Operator

Assemblies to mitigate damage associated with repetitive installation and removal to

support off-site surveillance testing of the original plant equipment.  The new PORVs

were designed to require less maintenance and to be tested in place.  During each fuel

cycle since installation, either one or both of the new PORVs have leaked by their closed

valve seats.  This condition has resulted in Dominion isolating PORVs during each of the

last four fuel cycles.  On November 17, 2016, Dominion isolated the ‘A’ PORV due to

leakage as captured in CR1054065. 

The PORVs provide overpressure protection for the reactor coolant system (RCS) by

relieving pressure to the quench tank thereby protecting the RCS against brittle failure.

Additionally, the PORVs are sized to ensure that departure from nucleate boiling

specified acceptable fuel design limits are not exceeded during analyzed events.  The

rated capacity per valve is one half the capacity that prevents lifting the RCS safety

valves during normal plant operations and transients including a loss of load from full

power.  Furthermore, this capacity is sufficient to prevent lifting the safety valves in the

event of a continuous control rod withdrawal from low power, in conjunction with a

pressurizer pressure trip of the reactor.  Blocking or isolating a PORV will prevent the

valve from automatically opening on demand.

To correct PORV leakage Dominion has performed three recent ACEs with limited

success.  ACE 18846, from 2012, concluded that the incorrect subcomponents,

mismatched valve seats and discs, were used when maintenance technicians swapped

out a damaged seat during installation.  Dominion also identified lost bench and post-

maintenance testing opportunities in addition to training and procedural enhancements. 

In 2015, ACE 19950 found that Dominion failed to provide the vendor adequate testing

28

requirements in the purchase order for the PORVs.  Dominion further identified that the

welded in configuration of the current PORV design does not allow for testing prior to

restoring the system.  ACE 1028983, in 2016, observed that Dominion failed to take

proper action upon identification of PORV leakage due to procedural weaknesses.

The Dominion CAP procedure, PI-AA-200, provides instructions to station management

to ensure selection of the most appropriate causal analysis tools during CR screening.

Consistent with previous screening, CR1054065 was screened as Significance Level 2,

Potentially Significant Condition.  These conditions are identified as precursors to

significant events.  PI-AA-200, Attachment 6, “CAQ Screening Matrix,” recommends

consideration of a root cause evaluation (RCE) for potentially significant repetitive

conditions. The inspectors observed that Dominion initially elected to perform another

ACE for isolation of the ‘A’ PORV captured in CR1054065.  However, consistent with a

healthy corrective action program, station staff assigned analysis of the issue identified

that the three recent ACEs had not successfully prevented PORV leakage and

requested elevation to a RCE to ensure the appropriate rigor.  Dominion has scheduled

completion of the associated RCE (CA3048134) for February 12, 2017.

Junk Plant Pilgrim: Its the Political Campaign Contribution "Risk Perspective" Safety Philosophy, Stupid

As we said, We all got to get tough here to fix this. We are being taken advantage by the main stream utilities.

If there are 25 violations, the general safety level isn't green. It is green times green times green fifteen times to get you the general violation level. The way the NRC plays this out is if there were 100 green or insignificant violations then the general is just green.

Any violation of procedures, rules or report inaccuracies should be treated independent of component risk. It is a very serious violation as it impacts the ability of the NRC to carries out it responsibilities. 

My bet is a majority of these violation are going to be old violations that the NRC should have been identified for or five years ago. The NRC has been implicated with tolerating this kind of behavior.  

So there have been eight recent security violations and maybe fifteen plant violations.       

Pilgrim Nuclear Plant’s Neighbors Confront Regulators Over Safety

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — One by one, ordinary residents confronted the federal regulators, telling them during a three-hour meeting Tuesday night that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station here was not safe and should be shut down.

Their chief piece of evidence? An internal email written Dec. 6 by the leader of a federal inspection team and sent accidentally — thanks to autofill in the “to” line — to Diane Turco, a citizen activist opposed to the plant.

The email outlined a host of problems at the aging plant, 40 miles southeast of Boston, including that the plant managers seemed “overwhelmed just trying to run the station.”

Ms. Turco immediately forwarded the email to The Cape Cod Times, which ran an article that set off alarm bells across the state and reignited residents’ long-simmering worries about the plant, which has been classified by federal regulators as one of the three worst-performing of the nation’s 99 nuclear plants.

The email — and the debate that has followed — have forced a painful reckoning here in Plymouth, where many residents have been supportive of the plant, which has long provided this historic town with high-paying jobs, a boon to the tax base and contributions to charities.

Finally, after weeks of escalating concerns, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to meet with the residents and several elected officials here on Tuesday night.

The meeting drew 300 people in a snowstorm to a nondescript hotel ballroom, where many were armed with neon green placards saying “Shut Pilgrim Now.” The residents said they viewed the damaging email as exactly the sort of evidence they needed to finally make a substantive argument against the station.

But to the surprise of some at the meeting, the regulators acknowledged the problems. Donald Jackson, the inspector who wrote the email, discussed its main points. And the regulators said the problems raised in the message were being addressed and, most important, were not serious enough to close the plant.

“I have to have a sound technical and legal basis to do that,” Dan Dorman, the regional administrator for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an interview after the meeting.

“One of the purposes of this inspection was to dive deep into this station and see if that basis for closing was there,” he said. “And what I’m hearing right now from this team is they didn’t find it.”

In addition, he said, the commission would not intervene in the scheduled refueling of the plant, which is to take place this spring. The commission is to issue its final report in March or April and will return to Plymouth for a public meeting on March 21.

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts has been classified by federal regulators as one of the three worst-performing of the nation’s 99 nuclear plants. Credit David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

The conclusion angered and disappointed many of the plant’s opponents, but some said on Wednesday that the regulators’ conclusion did not leave them defeated.

“It is motivating us even more,” said Ms. Turco, the inadvertent recipient of the email, who is also the director of the Cape Downwinders, a group opposed to the plant.

 “We don’t know exactly what our next step is,” she said, “but we certainly aren’t going away or taking this lying down.” She said the activists intended to pressure Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, to revoke the plant’s operating license.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has classified Pilgrim, which went online in 1972, and two plants in Arkansas in a category called Column Four, one step away from being required to shut. All three are owned by Entergy Corporation, based in Louisiana.

After the meeting Tuesday night, Patrick O’Brien, a spokesman for Entergy, said, “The key for us is that the N.R.C. said the plant is safe to operate.”

The company is shutting the plant anyway by May 31, 2019, for financial reasons, Mr. O’Brien said. “With low gas prices, it’s not favorable to run a nuclear generating station and make money,” he said. But if the plant were to shut down early, Entergy would be penalized for failing to keep its commitment to contribute to the region’s electrical grid.

Driving Ms. Turco and other critics is the fear of an accident that, according to a 2006 study done for the state attorney general, could have the potential to contaminate millions of residents from Boston to Providence, R.I., cause 24,000 latent cancers in the region and result in $488 billion in damages.

Mr. Jackson, the inspector who wrote the errant email, said it was “a snapshot in time,” taken during the first week of a three-week inspection. In explaining his comment about plant workers being “overwhelmed,” he said that his team had shown up with 20 inspectors instead of the usual three or four, and that they had made many demands on the plant workers.

“I didn’t mean to leave the impression that operators in the control room were overwhelmed,” he said. There was a lot of confusion in that first week, he said, but eventually things settled down.

While the inspection is continuing, he said he expected the final report to find between 10 and 15 violations. “It’s clear they are a Column Four performer,” he said, “but we did determine that the plant is operating safely now.”

Junk Plant Hatch Going Crazy ON US

UNUSUAL EVENT - POTENTIAL SECURITY EVENT

Plant Hatch declared a notification of unusual event. Subsequent investigation determined the paraphernalia was related to plant drills. The Unusual Event was terminated at 1727 EST.

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified the DHS SWO, FEMA, NICC, and NNSA (via e-mail).

* * * RETRACTION FROM KENNETH HUNTER TO MARK ABRAMOVITZ AT 1829 EST ON 2/1/2017 * * *

The event was retracted.

The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

Notified the R2DO (Shakur), NSIR (Holian), IRD MOC (Gott), DHS SWO, FEMA, NICC, and NNSA (via e-mail).

Trump Threatening To Send In Our Military into Mexico

I give his presidency so far a triple "A" plus so far. He is the best president I've ever seen. Our ideologies don't even match.   

Trump also vented anger and touted his political accomplishments in a tense conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, officials said. The two have sparred for months over Trump’s vow to force Mexico to pay for construction of a border wall between the two countries, a conflict that prompted Peña Nieto to cancel a planned meeting with Trump.
Trump told Peña Nieto in last Friday’s call, according to the Associated Press, which said it reviewed a transcript of part of the conversation, “You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”